Oh Happy Day!: October 2009

First off, Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband!! Having this baby has made me realize once again how much I truly love this guy and how blessed I am to have him in my life! He has been an amazing support through everything! Not only during labor and delivery but with taking care of all of us! I couldn't do it without him!

WARNING- this is really long, scroll down if you just want to look at pictures!! Okay I know you are all anxious to hear the story. So here it goes. I started having contractions on Friday night. They were strong enough and consistent enough to keep me up for four hours. I thought for sure it was the real thing, but unfortunately the contractions stopped. On Saturday and Sunday I had more contractions on and off. I tried to just ignore them because I didn't want to get my hopes up. I started having contractions once again pretty consistently during the Sunday afternoon session of conference. They still weren't very strong. After conference I went for about an hour and a half walk during which time the contractions continued coming and increased in intensity. When I got home we had dinner and got Aiden ready for bed. I told Bryan that I didn't think I could handle it emotionally if this wasn't the real thing this time. I called my family and asked them to pray for me to go into labor. Our prayers were answered. Around 8:00pm we went to the hospital. I was dialated to a 3 and having contractions about every 3 minutes. They said I could definitely stay. Yay! Thanks to some amazing friends and family members and because of the bad recovery I had last time I decided to go all natural without any pain medication. I was a little nervous how the nurses would react to this decision, but I was pleasantly surprised at how supportive they were. I wanted labor to continue to progress quickly and I did not want to be stuck to the bed so I asked if I could continue walking around. The nurses were great. She hooked me up to a wireless monitor so I could walk around all I wanted. So Bryan and I walked the halls for a couple hours. Everytime I had a contraction I would lean against the wall and Bryan would push on my back while I breathed through it. The pressure helped the back labor tremendously. After a hour or so the nurse wanted to hook me up to the IV. I asked if it was really necessary. She said if I continued drinking water and was really planning to go all natural then I didn't need it. Yay I could still have freedom to move around. When the contractions got a little more intense I walked around in the room and would kneel down on a chair while Bryan sat on, applied pressure or rubbed my back. Around 1:00am they checked me to see how far I had dialated. At this point I was only dialated to a 5! Ah only 2cm in 5 hours. I was thinking at that point I didn't know if I could do it for several more hours! Bryan and the nurse were very encouraging and told me I could it. That I was already half way there! At that point I decided to get into the shower for a while. I was a little worried about the contractions slowing down, because if you get in the water too soon it can slow down your labor. The nurse did not seem concerned about this because of how frequent and intense the contractions were. So I hopped in the shower. Let me tell you, the contractions definitely did not slow down in fact they just kept getting stronger and closer together. I was having them one after another with little break inbetween. After a while the back pain was too intense and I needed Bryan to push on my back some more, so I got out and leaned on a birthing ball. At this point there was hardly any break inbetween contractions. At one point I said, "I can't do this." Bryan continued to encourage me and tell me I could. What I didn't realize was that I was in transition. The next contraction I felt like I needed to push. The nurse came in and checked me and I was at a 9! She ran to call the doctor. I managed to climb up on the bed. By the time she got back I was at a 10 and trying hard to wait for the doctor. At first they told me to wait, and then a whole team of nurses rushed in with a midwife and they told me to push as hard as I could. I guess that Austin had gone to the bathroom, and they were worried about him breathing it in. The midwife quickly broke my water and 3 pushes later he was born! 2:04am to be exact, only one hour later! No wonder the last hour was so intense, I dialated from a 5 to a 10 in only an hour! My doctor never did make it in time. He arrived shortly after Austin was born.

I have to say that it was one of the most amazing and empowering experiences I have ever had. I would definitely do it again. It was so nice to be able to get up right after he was born and walk around and use the bathroom without any problems. The recovery has been so much better this time! I think Bryan was just as exhausted as I was by the end of it all. He was truly amazing! I could not have done it without him!! We are just so happy that everything went so well and that Austin is healthy and doing so good.

Okay so for some pictures finally....

Right after he was born getting washed up

Austin with Dr. Weber

Proud Daddy and Proud Mommy

Austin with Nana and big brother Aiden. Nana came and helped with Aiden for a couple of days while I was in the hospital. That was a huge help! Aiden was so excited every time he came to the hospital to see his baby brother. He has been really sweet with him.